Dying: A Moving Poem

By Parineetha Karumanchi

Published 2:10 EST, Wed December 29th, 2021

A leaden breath 

Escapes her lips

All at once

There is no forward

For the body

Married to modern medicine

It hits you all at once

Pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night

A fanfare of epiphany surpasses 

The sky screams your name

Sanity becomes foreign 

You become consumed by your own hysterical thoughts

Velvet shrouds consume you

Your eyes shut 

And a marriage of pale, winter green, rusted gold and specks of sleepy summer skies

Are all you can see

The low, incessant rumbling of your machines mitigates

And one meek sigh is released

As if struck by a pistol shot

You squirm for one last breath

The elixir of life discharges

Your soul ceases to exist

A quiver kisses the blood

In my veins

My brittle bones

A streak of crimson tear on your cheek

And the earth embraces you.

Parineetha Karumanchi, Youth Medical Journal 2021